Vacuum energy and the spacetime index of refraction: A new synthesis

Abstract

In 1+3 (threading) formulation of general relativity spacetime behaves analogous to a medium with a specific index of refraction with respect to the light propagation. Accepting the reality of zero point energy, through the equivalence principle, we elevate this analogy to the case of virtual photon propagation in a quantum vacuum in a curved background spacetime. Employing this new idea one could examine the response of vacuum energy to the presence of a stationary gravitational field in its different quantum field theoretic manifestations such as Casimir effect and Lamb shift. The results are given explicitly for a Casimir apparatus in the weak field limit of a Kerr hole.

10 pages, RevTex, more typos corrected (combined with arXiv:1003.0614 published in PRD)

References in corpus (5)

• Derivation of a Vacuum Refractive Index in a Stringy Space-Time Foam Model
• How Does Casimir Energy Fall?
• Superluminality and UV Completion
• Energy-momentum tensor for a Casimir apparatus in a weak gravitational field
• Fermat's principle in quantum gravitational optics

Cited by in corpus (15)

• Casimir effect of two conducting parallel plates in a general weak gravitational field
• Casimir effect in a weak gravitational field and the spacetime index of refraction
• Electromagnetic Casimir effect and the spacetime index of refraction
• Casimir effect due to a slowly rotating source in the weak field approximation
• Null Second Order Corrections to Casimir Energy in Weak Gravitational Field
• Casimir forces on deformed fermionic chains
• Quasi-local Casimir energy and vacuum buoyancy in a weak gravitational field
• General relativistic analogs of Poisson's equation and gravitational binding energy
• Metamaterial analog of a black hole shadow: An exact ray-tracing simulation based on the spacetime index of refraction
• Null second order corrections to Casimir energy in weak gravitational field: The Schwinger's approach
• Static and stationary dark fluid universes: A gravitoelectromagnetic perspective
• Papapetrou field as the gravitoelectromagnetic field tensor in stationary spacetimes
• Casimir effect for scalar field rotating on a disk
• Geometric Backreaction of Modified Quantum Vacua and Diffeomorphisim Covariance
• Quantum vacuum under mixed boundary conditions: the case for curved spacetime